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Bush Says Terrorists Will Face Justice

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2002  Al-Nashiri is a killer who has been brought to justice, President Bush said today.

Americans and all freedom-loving people "are one person safer as a result of us finding this guy," Bush said in St. Petersburg, Russia, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to press reports, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is the suspected mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors during a stop in Yemen in October 2000. U.S. officials said he was arrested earlier this month. He is considered one of the highest-ranking al Qaeda leaders captured to date.

Al-Nashiri's capture sends the message that the United States and its partners are "making progress on the war against terrorists," Bush said. "We're going to hunt them down one at a time; that it doesn't matter where they hide. As we work with our friends, we will find them and bring them to justice."

Bush stopped in Russia after attending the NATO summit in Prague, Czech Republic, where the alliance invited seven new members into its fold: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Bush said the mood of the NATO countries is that "Russia is our friend; we've got a lot of interests together; we must continue our cooperation in the war on terror; and the expansion of NATO should be welcomed by the Russian people."

After all," he noted, the new NATO member nations are "pledged to peace, and pledged to freedom."

Bush concluded his remarks by describing relations between the United States and Russia "as very good."

Putin said the two leaders had discussed "practically everything between the sky and earth." He said topics included cooperation in energy and high technology, Russia's relations with NATO, the problem of terrorism and cooperation on matters of strategic stability. The Russian president concluded that the meeting had been very productive and fruitful.